This invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing cotton rolls. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus which may be supported on a work table, credenza, sideboard or the like in use in an operating room such as a dental operatory for readily supplying users such as dentists, surgeons, and assistants with absorbtive cotton rolls.
Cotton rolls have been used for some long time in absorbing liquids in various operating procedures, particularly dental operating procedures where saliva must be captured to maintain a dry operating field. Such rolls have been supplied to users, such as dentists, surgeons and their assistants, from dispensers which retain a quantity of rolls and are intended to present them one at a time for use.
Prior cotton roll dispensers have suffered from deficiencies and difficulties in use in that they are usually opaque, and thus conceal from view any remaining supply of rolls, leaving a user uncertain as to whether rolls are present to be dispensed. Further, with at least some dispensers, it has been difficult for a user to grasp a roll being dispensed, thus making it difficult for rolls to be brought quickly into use when speed may be required. Both of these problems have arisen, at least in part, out of a necessity (for surgical applications) of maintaining the rolls sterile.